There was a huge update today in GW. Lots of skill revamping and, in my opinion, some nice changes.

Ursan finally got the nerfbat hard. As an elite form with a 60 sec downtime, it pretty much made all of the 5-man Ursan builds useless. I guess people are going to have to do things the old fashioned way by using balanced builds (or gimmick builds).

I’m sure the changes to UW also helped to nerf ecto farming there even more (though I don’t farm that area, so I really can’t say how it was affected).

The following changes affect me, and therefore I’ll discuss them a bit more at length:

• Life Transfer: decreased recharge to 20 seconds. Functionality changed to: “Also hexes foes adjacent to target (6..12 second). Causes -3..8 Health degeneration. You have +3..8 Health regeneration.”
• Order of Undeath: increased recharge to 15; decreased Energy cost to 5. Functionality changed to: “All but one of your minions die. If that minion is non-Elite, it deals +5..30 more damage, has +5..20 Health regeneration, and attacks 33% faster (20 seconds).”
• Pain of Disenchantment: decreased casting time to 1 second; increased recharge time to 15 seconds. Functionality changed to: “Target foe loses 1..3 enchantments. Removal effect: that foe and all adjacent foes lose 10..100 Health.”
• Vampiric Spirit: functionality changed to: “Steal 5..50 Health from target foe. You have +5..10 Health regeneration (10 seconds).”

I’m very happy about Life Transfer. I enjoy the AoE nature of this skill and it is now considered the elite version of Suffering, rather than the elite version of Life Siphon. Spread the Degen around!

I’m very upset about Order of Undeath. Rather than it’s very effective previous use of dealing X extra damage (like the other Orders skills) for each minion and dealing you health damage, this new version gives you one weak berserking minion. It doesn’t add any armor to the minion (who is very likely to be below 20th level) and the regen barely counters the degen of the minion. You waste an elite that requires a second animate skill, when you can just as easily take a Flesh Golem. The damage output is comparable and you can enchant and put weapon skills on the Golem.

Pain of Disenchantment. This looks like fun. An elite enchant removal skill that also deals AoE. It’ll go great with Defile/Desecrate for quick AoE damage and enchant removal. I’m looking forward to playing with this skill.

While it does mess up one of my fun builds whereby I am an AoE life sucker…. I kind of like this version of Vampy Spirit better. It works well on a bar with other life steals and adds regen (a saccer’s best friend next to low max health). I’m looking forward to dusting off my old Medusa build to play with this one.

Other than these skills, the PvE skills I usually use haven’t changed much. Most of them received boons and the ones that were nerfed were only slightly so. Most of the PvE skills that received boons got them on the lower end of things, which doesn’t affect me since I’m r8 or better in all of those titles. It is nice for people who aren’t whoring for titles (like me) so they can have a higher benefit at lower ranks in the titles.

That is it for now I guess. More updates as I mess around with these changes. Feel free to post your comments as well.

-Belzan

Not one day after I post my build (the one I’m really enjoying) does ANet go and change the pivotal skill. No longer does Angorodon’s Gaze steal lots of health and make for an excellent spike when echoed. Here is the change:

Angorodon’s Gaze: decreased Energy cost to 5; decreased Health stolen to 10..40; decreased Energy gained to 1..9.

It is now effectively free to cast this spell and it will often return energy, however, it does not do as well with the steal/damage. In addition, it isn’t viable to echo this skill as much as before. Still it is nice to have on the bar.

Side note: If you’re ok with the “up-close-and-personal” Blood Mage, then this skill now works well in conjunction with Vampiric Spirit as the life steal is increased and you are still essentially casting the spell for free. Likewise, this has better cooperation with the many condition transferring skills since you’re going to be a conditions magnet anyway.

*off to do more playtesting*

I call this build “Medusa” because of all of the Gaze attacks. Posted below is the build as I’m currently running it. I’ve included attribute levels and equipment as well (so you can try it out yourself). Following shortly thereafter are alternative skills and their usefulness.

The Medusa is a blood magic build based on spamming life stealing spells. This version is focused on doing so from spell range, rather than “up close and personal” as some of the other blood builds. This tactic is frequently used by E/Me to copy Fireball and is commonly knows as an Echo Chain.

Equipment:

I’m presently using a 10/10 wand (req 9 Soul Reaping) and a 20/20 blood offhand, which gives me 10/10 on all spells and 30/30 on blood spells. This is primarily a caster build. A 20/20 wand would make things work more quickly, but a caster sword/axe/spear would be fine as well for +5 energy and 20% enchant increase for AtB. I would ideally use a 20/20 wand and 20/20 offhand (both blood) and have a shield set to switch to (prolly -5/20 +30 or -2 enchant/+45 enchant) if I start taking hits.

Because I’m more likely going to be close to my foes with this build, I tend to favor more armor. I use Tormentor’s Insignia if I’m including more than one sacrifice spell (see below) and Survivor’s Insignia if not. My Tormentor’s includes a Sup Blood Rune (on scar), Minor Soul Reaping Rune, Major Vigor Rune and 2 Attunement Runes. It is advised to stay away from the Condition Removing Runes for this build as you will need to have at least one condition constantly (see below). My Survivor’s Armor is the same, but change Attunement to Vitae.

Medusa (current incarnation):

Signet of Agony (SoA)
Awaken the Blood (AtB)
Echo [E]
Angorodon’s Gaze (AG)
Arcane Echo (AE)
Vampiric Gaze (VG)
Blood of the Aggressor (BotA)
Signet of Lost Souls (SoLS)

Casting order… SoA before AtB (to avoid extra life sac), Echo, AG, AE, Echoed AG. Cycle through all 3 copies of AG. Use VG and BotA if you are having trouble keeping conditions on you (may have to use manual casting with heroes who remove conditions very effectively). AG costs 15 if you don’t have a condition (SoA provides bleeding for 25 sec), but only 3 if you do (you must still have 15 energy to cast in the first place).

AG steals 63 health at BM 12, 79 health at BM 16 and 87 health at BM 18. With its 1 sec cast time and 5 sec recharge (both reduced frequently with the 20/20 mod(s)) you will be spiking your enemy for a lot of armor ignoring damage and healing yourself at the same time.

When grouping with people, I generally drop BotA or AtB and add a rez.

Keeping with the theme:

Jaundiced Gaze
Oppressive Gaze
Ravenous Gaze [E]
Verata’s Gaze
Gaze of Contempt

Jaundiced Gaze is nice for a starter attack and steals/deals 63 health/damage at BM 16 with a 2 sec recharge. It is a conditional life steal (foe has more health than you) which makes its inherent 10% sac (15% sac with AtB) a little hard to manage without lowering your health.

Oppressive Gaze has a 7 sec recharge and 2 sec cast time and requires the foe be suffering from weakness for full effect (meaning you need to provide weakness somehow). It “damages” the foe for 100-110 (some damage, some steal) but is slower and more costly than Angorodon’s Gaze for dealing only slightly more damage/steal.

Ravenous Gaze [E] is an elite that cuts down on the number of copies you can make of your gaze spells. It has high conditional returns and may be beneficial in a build where you lower your health or use multiple life saccing skills (to lower your health in battle below the 50% mark to trigger this skill’s conditional extra damage).

Verata’s Gaze is included because it is a gaze spell. Not terribly useful here as you have to invest at least 5 points into the Death Magic attribute and it functions with minions.

Gaze of Contempt is a nice utilitarian spell to remove a foe’s enchantments. It has a high recharge (15 sec) but removes all enchantments and makes for a nice way to start things off.

Alternate skills:

Here are a few skills to consider with this build:

Apply Condition

Foul Feast – Draw conditions from ally to meet req for Angorodon’s Gaze (also some health/energy gain)
Blood Drinker – Applies bleeding to you if your health is over 50%

More Offensive

Vampiric Spirit [E] – spells cost more and life steal is based on proximity (how close you are to target)
Vampiric Swarm – nice AoE life steal
Life Transfer [E] and/or Life Siphon – adds degen pressure while providing regen for you
Strip Enchantment – 1-2 enchants and life steal–compare with Gaze of Contempt

More Defensive

Blood Renewal – regen and healing, be careful of the 25% sac when using AtB
Demonic Flesh – nice health buffer, be careful of the 20% sac when using AtB

Energy Management

Cultist’s Fervor [E] – decreases spell cost by 7, but adds sac (which is often taken care of by life steals). Not recommended for use with AtB
Reaper’s Mark [E] – degen foe and nice energy return upon foe’s death
Masochism – great when using spells that sac health

Important Note:

Be sure you discuss with your group that you will be running this build and explain how Angorodon’s Gaze works so the party monk doesn’t keep removing your conditions. I’ve had some difficulty getting my point across a couple times and have volunteered to be the person who removes conditions in the party. For this I generally will either add Foul Feast to my build (at SR 13 it costs 2 energy and heals me for 39) or, in condition heavy areas, I’ll bring the monk elite Martyr or the paragon elite Cautery Signet. All 3 skills remove conditions from party members and leave me with a condition to power Angorodon’s Gaze. Additionally, none require me to reallocate my attribute points into another attribute.

Likewise, if you are bringing heroes with condition removal, it is advised to disable these skills and use them yourself when necessary.

Good luck and happy slaying!

It is official, People Know Me. I finished capping all of my elites tonight with the last one being Shatter Storm. I really got methodical about the whole thing. I moved quickly into an area, tracked down the boss, slayed him/her/it, capped, and moved on. One explorable area (and some missions) after the other.

The saddest part about the Legendary Skill Hunter title is its usefulness. Now granted, all of my heroes have access to all of the elites, but when will I put them to use on my character? What use does a Necromancer have for an elite in the Strength attribute? Still, I really enjoyed working on this title and it has been by far my favorite so far.

I think my favorite part about the People Know Me title is the Rainbow Phoenix. I’ve wanted this pet for a while now. In order to get it you must have attained People Know Me (max out 10 titles) and enter your Hall of Monuments alone. You can charm it from there, but it is only 5th level. Still, it is a very large pet to begin with and it is supposed to be even bigger once it evolves. I’ve written it into my story (more toward the end than where it is currently) so I can’t wait to get that part posted.

From here, I will finish out my Legendary Guardian title by doing the rest of the Elonian Missions in HM. I will then alternate between EotN and Vanquishing/Mapping (planning on doing those simultaneously). All of my EotN titles will come from simply doing the missions and turning in the books. I have but 5 areas left to vanquish and map for EotN.

So that is that.

I recently had a nice spear drop, so I revisited my N/P build ideas. Most of them focus on applying conditions. As such, I’ve toyed with Virulence and Discord for my elites, both of which work very well. This build, however, focuses on Degen.

N/P

Blood 11 + 1 + 3 (15)
Spear 12
Soul Reaping 6 + 1 (7)

Mark of Fury (hex) – good source of adrenaline
Life Transfer [e] (hex) – Major Degen
Life Siphon (hex) – Minor Degen
Slayer’s Spear – Should be 1st spear attack, applies Deep Wound
Spear of Fury (Kurzick) – nice damage and gives Adrenaline if foe suffer from a condition
Barbed Spear – Applies Bleeding
Blazing Spear – Sets foe on fire
Optional (I’m using Order of Pain for added damage, but a rez could go here or another skill listed below)

Overall Degen (going down the list)
8 + 3 + 3 (bleed) + 7 (burn) = 21 degen (also a deep wound)
Degen is capped at -10, but all is applied, so major regen would need to be applied to overcome this amount of degen. Alternatively, spreading this degen out among many foes, as a ranger would do, is helpful, though a ranger is more capable of doing this.

Consider bringing Well of Ruin (curses), Well of Suffering (death) or Parasitic Bond (curses) for added degen of 1-2 pips, but know that fewer points will go in these attributes. Also, consider bringing Well of the Profane for extra pressure as it undoes and stops monk interference regarding enchantments. Keep in mind that this skill costs 25 energy and you’ll want to put at least 5 points in Death Magic to keep it from failing 50% of the time.

With Discord or Virulence in mind, you switch your points in Blood to Death Magic. Consider taking any/all of the following DM skills: Putrid Bile (for AoE at death + degen), Rising Bile (hex and AoE at teath), Rotting Flesh (applies disease), Taste of Pain (self heal). Also, consider Signet of Corruption (Kurzick) for nice energy management and Necrosis (Sunspear) for a cheap non-elite mimic of Discord.

I like to hex my target, usually someone in the back line since my spear has range, with Mark of Fury, then use my spear attacks to apply conditions/gain adrenaline. I follow up with one of the above hexes (usually Putrid Bile), Virulence, then spam Necrosis until they pop.

Enjoy

I recently tried out a build that utilizes the elite Vampiric Spirit. The build is described here. The build consists of the following skills:

Necromancer/Assassin or
Necromancer/Dervish (see below)

Dark Aura
Masochism
Vampiric Spirt
Dark Pact
Blood of the Aggressor
Dash
Optional
Optional

Max out Blood Magic (with runes)
Death Magic at 12
Rest in Soul Reaping (3 in Earth Prayers, see below)

The intent behind the build is to deal spike damage of 200+ in around 2 seconds. This is done through a combination of effects.

Dark Aura causes AoE damage whenever you sacrifice health. Masochism gives you energy in the same situation. Vampiric Spirit steals life from foes around you whenever you cast a spell.

Both Dark Pact and Blood of the Aggressor sacrifice a small amount of life, thereby triggering both Dark Aura and Masochism. The increase in spell cost for spells cast while enchanted with Vampiric Spirit is swallowed by the energy regen of Masochism. In addition, the stolen health from Vampiric Spirit makes up for the health sacrificed by Dark Pact and Blood of the Aggressor.

Ingenious really.

Dash (assassin skill) is used to get to your opponent and to pursue them if they kite (run away).

My changes would include the following:

Instead of Dash, I like the dervish skill Pious Haste. You don’t move as quickly (33% increase instead of 50%) but you can move constantly considering the 5 second duration and 5 second recharge. In addition, I like the idea of adding Aura of Thorns and perhaps Mystic Regeneration (both dervish) for an AoE cripple/bleed and extra regen for me (a problem I found in large mobs). The downside is having to spend points in Earth Prayers, though putting 3 points will net you an overall +6 regen given your standard 3 enchants.

I use a +5 20% enchant sword and a -5/20% shield with this build, though ideally, I would like to have a focus that is 10% half recharge and -2 damage while enchanted. This will solve many of the energy issues and give me added damage reduction.

As far as equipment is concerned, I disagree with the author of the original build slightly. Lower health means less life sacrificed. Ten percent (10%) sacrifice from Dark Pact hits hard if your health is high (in the 480 range as the author suggests) and it may not be covered by your health steal from Vampiric Spirit. Besides, the lower your initial health, the more you heal from the health steal skills and the more effective Mystic Regen is. I prefer 2 Superior Runes (Blood Magic and Soul Reaping) to bring my health down. I also don’t use any +health mods on my weapons or any vigor/vitae runes. This puts my health in the low to mid 300 range meaning, with Blood Magic at 16, I sacrifice say 35 health from Dark Pact and steal 53 from Vampiric Spirit for a net health gain.

It is a gamble, but to each his own. Watch out for spikes and let your monk know that you are running this build so they can keep an eye on you. Having a bonder would be a good thing too if you plan on playing with low health. I wouldn’t suggest going below 300 health with this build and, in rough areas, I’d stay around 400 health to be safe. Consider swapping items and armor with health mods/runes to manage your health through Death Penalty.

There you have it.